Critical Essay by The Edinburgh Review

SOURCE: A review of The Chimes, in The Edinburgh Review, Vol. LXXXI, January, 1845, pp. 181-89.

In the excerpt below, the anonymous critic discusses Dickens's exposure of the plight of the poor in The Chimes.

Tray, Mr Betterton,' asked the good Archbishop Sancroft of the celebrated actor, 'can you inform me what is the reason you actors on the stage, speaking of things imaginary, affect your audience as if they were real; while we in the church speak of things real, which our congregations receive only as if they were imaginary?' 'Why, really, my lord,' answered Betterton, 'I don't know; unless it is that we actors speak of things imaginary as if they were real, while you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.' It is a clever answer; and...